The Dip @ GoodGod Small Club

Thursday night had finally rolled around and for the motley posse that I shall dub ‘L-Crew’, we had all finished our law exams for the year (if not for our university lives)! Being the only one with really any form of organisational skills when it comes to planning events, I thought that it was an appropriate occasion to try and get everyone together.

Originally I had attempted to get a booking for Jamie’s Kitchen for our group of 12, but were turned down on Monday saying that they were ‘booked out’. I then turned to the next place I was eager to try after hearing about its good reviews, being The Dip at GoodGod Small Club near Haymarket. I made an email inquiry and was told the next day my booking was confirmed. Hallelujah!

As we all know, booking for a set number of so many people can result in the worst migraine you’ve ever had. Everyone for two weeks had put their attendance down on the Facebook event, then I made extra sure by sending everyone an email the night before to remind them, and texting those that hadn’t ‘seen’ the email in the morning… only to have two cancellations within the hour of our 7pm reservation. I hate organising these things!!

I was relieved when I arrived at GoodGod to find that the atmosphere was laid back and despite having a table laid out for 12, it didn’t seem like the place to be on my back for having two people not turn up.

The inside of the bar was VERY DARK, quite casual, with circular booths for smaller parties and long benches with white-washed, slightly sticky tables for larger groupings. Finding the ladies’ room almost required me to use the flashlight on my phone. There were some plants and other odd things on the walls. The bar is located at the front of the establishment, with The Dip ordering counter located further down on the right. This is where you make your orders before you’re handed a canister of forks, knives and spoons and a table number.

Waitresses and bar-staff were all girls who looked as though they had barely turned 18, dressed uber-casual in overalls, jeans, etc, suiting the laid-back atmosphere. They were very friendly and approachable, which I’d much rather than uniformed and pretentious waitresses and waiters at a fancier establishment.

Looking at the menu, it would have been too hard to share items among us (not to mention that law students are extraordinarily stingy and will get very aggravated over paying for something they didn’t eat their equal share of!) so we ended up each ordering for ourselves. For that reason I can only review what I’ve eaten, although I did make sure I did get pictures of what everyone else ordered (causing a minor epileptic fit every time my camera flash exploded in the dark bar).

I had the Salsa Fries ($7) with the Pulled Pork Nachos ($15), both things I had had my eye on all week. Typical me, it turns out I over-ordered. AGAIN.

Salsa Fries $7

The Salsa Fries were topped with fresh tomato salsa and cheese. The fresh tomato salsa was cold, and so it was a bit strange with the hot chips, but the chips were cooked well – soft, pillowy on the inside, and slightly crunchy on the outside. The only time I’ve had chips as nicely cooked as this was at Charlie & Co – their Truffle & Parmesan fries.

Pulled Pork Nachos $17

The Pulled Pork Nachos was oh-em-gee worthy. The strips of pulled pork were deliciously smoky, having been smoked for 12 hours. The nachos also included pinto beans, barbeque sauce, tomato salsa, jalapeno cream and (of course) cheese. Eating in the semi-darkness, I was happily eating away until I tasted the coriander. Boo 😥 There wasn’t too much of it though, so I persevered.

Despite only managing to polish off half of my nachos and half of my salsa fries before it was hoovered up by the L-Crew’s boys, I HAD to have dessert. They had run out of the Ice Cold Guac so it was either the Thanksgiving Special of Yam Pie or the Peanut Butter N Jelly. Hmm, a hard one, but Peanut Butter N Jelly it was!

Peanut Butter N Jelly $10

The Peanut Butter N Jelly was a scoop of peanut butter ice cream with toasted (slightly burnt) brioche, peanut brittle and strawberry ‘jelly’. The peanut butter ice cream was still salty and had that glorious stickiness of classic peanut butter. It might have been given a bit more oomph through maybe some crushed roasted nuts in the ice cream. The brioche was all right, but the brittle (not really depicted here) was amazing. Hard, but not teeth-shatteringly so, it had an unbelieveable hit of cinnamon that knocked off my socks (not that i was wearing any)!

By this time I was full to burst and the bar was gradually filling up with young hipsters, so we decided to make our departure. A very American-esque establishment. Fabulous nachos! I will probably come back to try that Dynamite Chilli Dawg.

Welcome!

I'm Cath at Confessions of a Glutton. I'm a cheesecake-devouring, sushi-craving, ramen-obsessed, salted-caramel-lover who is also a dance fitness instructor and a solicitor, living in the Northern Suburbs of the glorious city that is Sydney, Australia. These are my ramblings.